Social enterprises and their ecosystems in Europe: Country report: Portugal

Abstract

Until recently, the term “social enterprise” was almost absent in political and practitioners’ discourses. The term first emerged in international research projects, though it did not gain traction on the ground. The concept of social enterprise finds use in five different traditions. Social solidarity cooperatives associated to the cooperative/social economy tradition, social insertion enterprises mostly created and sustained by employment promotion public policies in partnership with non-profit organisations (NPOs), and a charitable tradition in the statute of Private Institutions of Social Solidarity (Instituição Particular de Solidariedade Social or IPSSs) and similar NPOs operating in welfare, and social solidarity enterprises, related to a voluntary engagement tradition. And yet, these organisations rarely describe themselves as social enterprises. In a more recent development, the term social enterprise came to the fore in policy documents and practitioners’ discourses with the influence of European Union (EU) institutions and frameworks. Here, the concept of social enterprise assumes the meaning of a commercial enterprise with social aims or a mix of social economy organisations (SEOs) and commercial enterprises. One better understands the very different meanings of social enterprise when relating it with the neighbourhood concepts of social economy, solidarity economy, social entrepreneurship and social innovation. Indeed, the main obstacle for the further development of social enterprises in Portugal is the lack of debate, clarification and some sort of agreement about its meanings.